Advance care planning is a process which enables you to think about and make decisions about your future health care in consultation with your doctor and other health care professionals, family members and/or other important people in your life.
An Advance Care Directive is a written statement of your wishes regarding your future medical treatment that is signed and dated. In other states it is sometimes called a ‘statement of wishes’, ‘advance directive’ or ‘living will’.
It helps those involved in your care to know what you want and makes it easier to convey these wishes to others. It can be changed by you at any time.
An Advance Care Directive will be used to guide future medical decisions ONLY when you lose the ability to make or communicate your medical treatment decisions yourself.
In this case, a 'person responsible' (or guardian if appointed) will make medical treatment decisions on your behalf, in consultation with your treating doctors. Medical treatment decisions will be made in your best interests and take into account your written wishes.
If you complete an Advance Care Directive you may nominate a family member or friend to make important decisions for you when you are unable to make decisions for yourself about medical treatment. Consider providing copies of the document to your family, hospital, local doctor and anyone else whom you feel is appropriate.
Advantages:
- You can have confidence that your wishes are known and clearly stated;
- Health professionals caring for you can feel satisfied knowing they are respecting your wishes; and
- It relieves some of the decision making burden on your family and carers.
If you do not make an Advance Care Directive, your treating doctors will still care for you and provide treatment in your best interests in consultation with your Person Responsible.
A step by step guide to writing an Advance Care Directive can be found on the Tasmanian Palliative Care Clinical Network website.
Enduring Guardianship
The Guardianship Board in Tasmania can assist a person to appoint another person or persons to make lifestyle decisions for him or her in the event that the person is no longer capable of making those decisions. The process is known as appointing an enduring guardian.
An Enduring Guardianship is a legally binding form of Advanced Care Plan which enables you to record and register your wishes and appoint a person to make medical and lifestyle decisions for you.
Click on this Guardian and Administration Board link to find forms and information sheets including:
Appointing an enduring guardian